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Audio Concepts 3 way speakers - info?

gonzothegreat

gonzothegreat

Super Member
Most of this week was spent "reorganizing" the basement so the cable guy could check the lines and I resolved not to buy any more speakers until I unloaded a few. That lasted almost a whole day. Probably some sort of record for me... :D

While my clothes were in the dryer I ran to the local thrift and it looked like everything had been picked over by the morning regulars. As I was leaving I saw a pair of speakers with a slanted front. Removing the grill revealed a 10" woofer with a concave dustcap, a small midrange and a Vifa metal dome tweeter with a fabric ring around the dome. The cabinet was about 3 feet tall and was MDF covered with veneer. Ten bucks for the pair. I couldn't find a brand name so I put the grills back on and walked out of the store without them. Nope - no more speakers for me. I was proud of myself.

Then the voices in my head started chipping away at my self-control. The cabs were well constructed. Vifa tweeters and a decent 10" woofer. Just ten bucks. You'll be kicking yourself in the morning. Besides you made all that money selling gear Saturday and you made space for a nice pair like these.

Less than 20 minutes later I was back at the store and fortunately they were still there. Fifteen minutes later they were home and I pulled the woofers to try and figure out who made them. The woofers were labeled AC10 and had a foil sticker that read "Audio Concepts". The woofers may be Vifas according to what little I've found on the web. They also need refoaming so they are at least 15 years old. The xover has poly caps and the internal wiring is all Audioquest iirc so they were definitely not cheap white van speakers!

Any idea what model these are? There wasn't any sort of label anywhere on the cab.

Pics to come later.
 
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Audio Concepts is a mom and pop custom stereo shop here in the St. Louis area. Maybe they threw this set together back in the day - it seems they do a lot of dabbling in various tube and SS mods stuff. Sounds like good guts ya got! Brain fart... it is Musical Concepts.
 
ACI has been around for quite some time....their speakers have been highly regarded for quite some time. Mike Curzio or something like that owns the company.
 
I dug around the ACI site and indeed they are based in LaCrosse (just a few hours from Madison). Their current lineup doesn't have anything like the traditional 10" three way - just HT speakers, pricey subwoofers and minimonitors. While I could not find my speaker in their site's archive section, there were numerous similarities between mine and current models (MDF cabs, unique midrange shape and quality xover parts).

Oh, just found this catalog from 1988 in the Audiocircle ACI forums. Can't download it ATM as I'm on dialup.
http://www.wghwoodworking.com/audio/aci_catalogue_32.zip
 
Its an ACI G2.

Found a picture of mine in the old catalog. It was offered as a kit so that explains why the glue on the xover/terminal panel looks like crap. Twas a budget speaker as you can see. Budget price but with what look to be all Vifa drivers, Audioquest wiring, nice binding posts and a quality xover. I'd love to get my hands on a super titan.
 

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I just picked up a pair today at a thrift store with shot foam and nice veneer, did you ever listen to yours?
 
Yeah but I never was able to get them sounding good in a small bedroom system. I suspect they need a larger room (>10'x10') to strut their stuff.

I had to order custom surrounds for mine as the generic MATs didn't fit.
 
I have a pair of Audio Concepts G2's that I made when I was in high school. Although they've been stored in my parent's garage (sealed in plastic, so hopefully in great condition) for nearly 25 years, I recall they were outstanding sounding speakers. At the time, I had a pair of Magnepan SMGs, Acoustat 1100s and some Cerwin Vega AT-15s. The Audio Concepts G2 was my overall favorite, good bass, balanced mids and highs, and plenty of dynamic range. They were fun to build too.
 
I purchased and built one of their Saturn compound subwoofer kits. I believe it had either 2 DV10/AC10 (whichever is dual voice coil) woofer in a compound configuration where they were wired out of phase and mounted face to face. It was a very nice sub and went pretty low, but I've replaced it with a SVS PB-2000.
 
I run AC10s in my living room Frankenspeakers. A school buddy of mine bought his Sub1/Sapphire2 setup in 1990 and has never even considered replacing them.
 
kfalls said:
I purchased and built one of their Saturn compound subwoofer kits. I believe it had either 2 DV10/AC10 (whichever is dual voice coil) woofer in a compound configuration where they were wired out of phase and mounted face to face. It was a very nice sub and went pretty low, but I've replaced it with a SVS PB-2000.
Click to expand...
I still have a Saturn...uses 2 AC 12 woofers but I replaced them when the died with a DV 12 run by an Oaudio plate amp....if you ever want to part with yours
 
i have speakers built using ACI 12" woofers and Madisound kit components. will probably be with me the rest of my life.
 
Audio Concepts had some very good oem drivers.
The ACI 8" polycone was better then many of the higher priced European drivers available back in the 1990's for a 2 way build.
 
I have a pair of G3 model speakers from the early 90s that I put together as a kit and sound great. One of my daughters has dibs on them when she gets her new place. Well built speakers with Vifa uppers and ACI made mids and woofers. Beautiful veneer work with quality made crossovers.
 
The catalog I downloaded says that the G2s used Seas Drivers for Tweets and Mids.
The Woofers were sub-contracted from a well known company based in the US.
Does anyone have any idea who it was?
Eminence?
 
I have a pair of G2s in Oak. A thrift store find. With original boxes.. $20
The tops need to be relaminated, and the foam on the woofers need refoamed…
Other than that, in great condition.
I Cannot wait to finish and hear these speakers.
 
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